Image processing device and image processing method

ABSTRACT

A storage portion (15) stores one or more pieces of automatic process setting information (20) including detection target information and processing content corresponding to the detection target information, the detection target information composed of a specific character string, a specific figure, or a specific combination thereof. An image data acquiring portion (161) acquires image data of a document (30). A detection processing portion (162) detects the detection target information from the document (30) based on the image data. A process executing portion (163) processes the image data according to the processing content included in the automatic process setting information (20), when the detection target information included in the automatic process setting information (20) is detected from the document (30) by the detection processing portion (162).

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an image processing device and an imageprocessing method.

BACKGROUND ART

There is known a copying apparatus that can, when a specific characterstring or image is included in an image read from a document,automatically edit a portion of the image including the character stringor the like, and make a copy of the document (for example, see PTL1).

CITATION LIST Patent Literature

[PTL 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-69803

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention

However, the copying apparatus only automatically edits the portionincluding the character string or the like, and does not perform aprocess (for example, a transmission process, a print process, a storageprocess) on the image data of the document according to processingcontent corresponding to the character string or the like included inthe image of the document.

The present invention has been made in view of such conventionalcircumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to providean image processing device and an image processing method that canprocess image data of a document according to processing contentcorresponding to a character string or the like included in an image ofthe document.

Solution to the Problems

An image processing device according to an aspect of the presentinvention includes a storage portion, an image data acquiring portion, adetection processing portion, and a process executing portion. Thestorage portion is configured to store one or more pieces of automaticprocess setting information including detection target information andprocessing content corresponding to the detection target information,the detection target information composed of a specific characterstring, a specific figure, or a specific combination thereof. The imagedata acquiring portion is configured to acquire image data of adocument. The detection processing portion is configured to detect thedetection target information from the document based on the image data.The process executing portion is configured to process the image dataaccording to the processing content included in the automatic processsetting information, when the detection target information included inthe automatic process setting information is detected from the documentby the detection processing portion.

An image processing method according to another aspect of the presentinvention is an image processing method in an image processing devicehaving a storage portion for storing one or more pieces of automaticprocess setting information including detection target information andprocessing content corresponding to the detection target information,the detection target information composed of a specific characterstring, a specific figure, or a specific combination thereof. The imageprocessing method includes an image data acquiring step, a detectionprocessing step, and a process executing step. In the image dataacquiring step, image data of a document is acquired. In the detectionprocessing step, the detection target information is detected from thedocument based on the image data. In the process executing step, theimage data is processed according to the processing content included inthe automatic process setting information, when the detection targetinformation included in the automatic process setting information isdetected from the document in the detection processing step.

Advantageous Effects of the Invention

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an imageprocessing device and an image processing method capable of processingimage data of a document according to processing content correspondingto a character string or the like included in an image of the document.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of an imageprocessing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of automatic process settinginformation used in the image processing device according to theembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure of a firstembodiment of an automatic process executed in the image processingdevice according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a document used in the imageprocessing device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure of a secondembodiment of the automatic process executed in the image processingdevice according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of automatic process settinginformation used in the image processing device according to theembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a document used in the imageprocessing device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a confirmation screen used inthe image processing device according to the embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of automatic process settinginformation used in the image processing device according to theembodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following describes an embodiment of the present invention withreference to the accompanying drawings for the understanding of theinvention. It should be noted that the following embodiment is anexample of a specific embodiment of the present invention and should notlimit the technical scope of the present invention.

[Configuration of Image Processing Device 1]

As shown in FIG. 1, an image processing device 1 according to anembodiment of the present invention includes an operation/displayportion 10, an ADF (Auto Document Feeder) 11, an image reading portion12, an image forming portion 13, a communication interface 14, a storageportion 15, and a control portion 16. Specifically, the image processingdevice 1 is a multifunction peripheral having a printer function, ascanner function, a copy function, a facsimile function, or the like. Itis noted that the present invention is not limited to a multifunctionperipheral, and is applicable to image processing devices such as acopier, a printer, and a facsimile device.

The operation/display portion 10 includes a display portion such as aliquid crystal display for displaying information, and an operationportion such as a touch panel and operation buttons for receiving a useroperation.

The ADF 11 includes a document setting portion, a conveying roller, adocument holder, and a sheet discharge portion, and is an automaticdocument feeding device for feeding a document to be read by the imagereading portion 12.

The image reading portion 12 includes a document table, a light source,a mirror, an optical lens, and a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), and isconfigured to read an image from a document 30 (see FIG. 4) and outputthe image as image data.

The image forming portion 13 is configured to execute a print processbased on the image data by an electrophotographic method or an inkjetmethod, and forms an image on the document based on the image data. Forexample, in a case where the image forming portion 13 is anelectrophotographic image forming portion, the image forming portion 13includes a photoconductor drum, a charger, an exposure device, adeveloping device, a transfer device, and a fixing device.

The communication interface 14 is configured to execute a communicationprocess according to a predetermined communication protocol with aninformation processing device such as an external facsimile device or apersonal computer, via a communication network such as a telephone line,the internet, or a LAN.

The storage portion 15 is a nonvolatile storage portion such as a harddisk or an EEPROM (registered trademark). The storage portion 15 storesvarious control programs executed by the control portion 16, and varioustypes of data. For example, automatic process setting information 20(see FIG. 2) is stored in the storage portion 15.

Meanwhile, there is known a copying apparatus that can, when a specificcharacter string or image is included in an image read from the document30, automatically edit a portion of the image including the characterstring or the like, and make a copy of the document 30. However, thecopying device is configured to only automatically edit the portion suchas the character string, and is not configured to execute a process (forexample, a transmission process, a print process, a storage process) onthe image data of the document 30 according to processing contentcorresponding to the character string or the like included in the imageof the document 30. On the other hand, the image processing device 1according to the present embodiment is capable of processing image dataof the document 30 according to processing content corresponding to thecharacter string or the like included in the image of the document 30,by a configuration and operations described below.

As shown in FIG. 2, the automatic process setting information 20 storedin the storage portion 15 includes detection target information, andprocessing content corresponding to the detection target information,the detection target information being composed of a specific characterstring, a specific figure, or a specific combination thereof. When aplurality of pieces of automatic process setting information 20 (forexample, automatic process setting information 20A and automatic processsetting information 20B shown in FIG. 2) are stored in the storageportion 15, the pieces of automatic process setting information 20 areidentified by their setting IDs. It is noted that the automatic processsetting information 20 is created, changed, added, and deleted asnecessary by, for example, a user operation on the operation/displayportion 10.

The control portion 16 includes control devices such as a CPU, a ROM,and a RAM. The CPU is a processor for executing various kinds ofarithmetic processing. The ROM is a nonvolatile storage portion in whichinformation such as a control program for making the CPU execute variousprocesses is preliminarily stored. The RAM is a volatile or nonvolatilestorage portion used as a temporary storage memory (work area) forvarious processes executed by the CPU.

Specifically, the control portion 16 includes an image data acquiringportion 161, a detection processing portion 162, and a process executingportion 163. It is noted that the control portion 16 functions as theseprocessing portions by executing various processes according to thecontrol program. In addition, the control portion 16 may be providedwith an electronic circuit for realizing a part of these processingportions or a plurality of processing functions.

The image data acquiring portion 161 acquires image data of the document30. For example, the image data acquiring portion 161 acquires the imagedata from the image reading portion 12 for reading the image of thedocument 30. Alternatively, the image data acquiring portion 161 mayacquire the image data of the document 30 from an information processingdevice (host device) such as a personal computer via the communicationinterface 14.

Based on the image data, the detection processing portion 162 detectsthe detection target information composed of a specific characterstring, a specific figure, or a specific combination thereof from thedocument 30. Specifically, the detection processing portion 162 detects,from the document 30, the detection target information included in theautomatic process setting information 20 stored in the storage portion15. In particular, the detection processing portion 162 detects thedetection target information from a predetermined specific area, such asan area within a printing range in which text of the document 30 iswritten. For example, the automatic process setting information 20Ashown in FIG. 2 includes the following three character strings: “paystatement”, “Suzuki Ichiro”, and “2009” as the detection targetinformation. In addition, the automatic process setting information 20Bshown in FIG. 2 includes two character strings, “minutes of generalmeeting” and “report by CEO”, and one figure (logo mark) represented bya piece of image data “Logo1.png” as the detection target information.In this case, the detection processing portion 162 detects theaforementioned character strings and figure from the document 30. It isnoted that the detection processing portion 162 detects a characterstring and a figure by using, for example, a known character recognitionprocess and pattern matching process.

When the detection processing portion 162 has detected the detectiontarget information from the document 30, the process executing portion163 processes the image data according to preset processing contentcorresponding to the detection target information. Specifically, whenthe detection processing portion 162 has detected the detection targetinformation included in the automatic process setting information 20from the document 30, the process executing portion 163 processes theimage data according to processing content included in the automaticprocess setting information 20. It is noted that processing contentincluded in the automatic process setting information 20 may relate toat least one of a transmission process (facsimile transmission or emailtransmission), a print process, and a storage process of the image data.

[First Embodiment of Automatic Process]

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, a description is given of an example ofa procedure of a first embodiment of an automatic process executed bythe control portion 16. Here, steps S11, S12, . . . represent numbers ofprocessing procedures (steps) executed by the control portion 16. It isnoted that the automatic process may be started in response to detectionof a specific operation (for example, pressing of a soft key forstarting the automatic process) on the operation/display portion 10.Here, a description is given of a case where a single-page document 30is read by the image reading portion 12.

<Step S11>

First, in step S11 (image data acquiring step), the control portion 16(image data acquiring portion 161) makes the image reading portion 12read an image of the document 30, and acquires image data of thedocument 30.

<Step S12>

In step S12 (detection processing step), the control portion 16(detection processing portion 162) detects the detection targetinformation included in the automatic process setting information 20from the document 30, based on the image data acquired in step S11 andthe automatic process setting information 20 stored in the storageportion 15. For example, in a case where the automatic process settinginformation 20 shown in FIG. 2 is stored in the storage portion 15, thecontrol portion 16 detects the character strings “pay statement”,“Suzuki Ichiro”, “2009”, “minutes of general meeting”, and “report byCEO”, as well as the figure represented by “Logo1.png” from the document30. As a result, for example, a character string 31A “minutes of generalmeeting”, a character string 31B “report by CEO”, and a FIG. 32represented by “Logo1l.png” are detected from the document 30 shown inFIG. 4.

<Step S13>

In step S13, based on a detection result of step S12, the controlportion 16 determines whether or not the detection target informationincluded in any of the pieces of automatic process setting information20 stored in the storage portion 15 has been detected from the document30. When it is determined that the detection target information includedin any of the pieces of automatic process setting information 20 hasbeen detected (S13: Yes), the process moves to step S14. On the otherhand, when it is determined that none of the detection targetinformation included in the pieces of automatic process settinginformation 20 has been detected (S13: No), the automatic process ends.

<Step S14>

In step S14 (process executing step), the control portion 16 (processexecuting portion 163) processes the image data according to processingcontent corresponding to the detected detection target information.

For example, in a case where character strings “pay statement”, “SuzukiIchiro”, and “2009” have been detected from the document 30, the controlportion 16 processes the image data of the document 30 according toprocessing content included in the automatic process setting information20A shown in FIG. 2. That is, the control portion 16 transmits the imagedata by email to a predetermined address (an address represented by apre-registered electronic mail address) via the communication interface14, and prints one monochrome copy of the image data using the imageforming portion 13.

In addition, for example, in a case where character strings “minutes ofgeneral meeting” and “report by CEO”, and the figure represented by“Logo1.png” have been detected from the document 30, the control portion16 processes the image data of the document 30 according to processingcontent included in the automatic process setting information 20B shownin FIG. 2. That is, the control portion 16 transmits the image data byemail to a predetermined address via the communication interface 14,prints ten monochrome copies of the image data using the image formingportion 13, and stores the image data in a predetermined storage area(for example, in a predetermined folder in the storage portion 15).Then, the automatic process ends.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when presetdetection target information is detected from the document 30, the imagedata of the document 30 is processed according to the processing contentcorresponding to the detection target information. That is, according tothe present embodiment, it is possible to process the image data of thedocument 30 according to the processing content corresponding to thecharacter string or the like included in the document 30. Accordingly,since image data of the document 30 created periodically, such as a paystatement or minutes for a general meeting, can be easily processedaccording to pre-registered processing content, labor of a user isreduced.

It is noted that while in the present embodiment, a case is describedwhere the image data is automatically processed according to processingcontent corresponding to the detected detection target information, thepresent invention is not limited to this case. In another embodiment,prior to execution of the processing in step S14, the control portion 16may display the processing content on the operation/display portion 10,and confirm with a user whether or not the processing may be executedaccording to the processing content. When a specific operation (forexample, pressing of an OK key or a start key) on the operation/displayportion 10 is detected, the control portion 16 may process the imagedata according to the processing content.

It is further noted that in a case where the detection targetinformation included in multiple pieces of automatic process settinginformation 20 is detected from the same document 30, the controlportion 16 may process the image data of the document 30 according tothe processing content included in the multiple pieces of automaticprocess setting information 20. Alternatively, the control portion 16may ask a user to choose one of the multiple pieces of automatic processsetting information 20 that includes processing content according towhich the image data of the document 30 should be processed.Alternatively, priority may be preliminarily set for each piece ofautomatic process setting information 20, and the control portion 16 mayprocess the image data according to processing content included in apiece of automatic process setting information 20 with highest priorityamong the multiple pieces of automatic process setting information 20.

[Second Embodiment of Automatic Process]

Next, with reference to FIG. 5, a description is given of an example ofa procedure of a second embodiment of the automatic process. Here, stepsS21, S22, . . . represent numbers of processing procedures (steps)executed by the control portion 16. Here, a case is described where adocument 30 having a plurality of pages is read by the image readingportion 12.

<Step S21>

First, in step S21, the control portion 16 (image data acquiring portion161) may use the ADF 11 to read the document 30 having a plurality ofpages and acquire image data of the document 30.

<Step S22>

In step S22, the control portion 16 (detection processing portion 162)detects the detection target information included in the automaticprocess setting information 20 from the plurality of pages of thedocument 30, based on the image data acquired in step S21 and theautomatic process setting information 20 stored in the storage portion15. For example, in a case where the automatic process settinginformation 20 shown in FIG. 2 is stored in the storage portion 15, thecontrol portion 16 detects the character strings “pay statement”,“Suzuki Ichiro”, “2009”, “minutes of general meeting”, and “report byCEO”, as well as the figure represented by “Logo1.png” from theplurality of pages of the document 30.

<Step S23>

In step S23, based on a detection result of step S22, the controlportion 16 determines whether or not the detection target informationincluded in any of the pieces of automatic process setting information20 stored in the storage portion 15 has been detected from at least onepage of the document 30. When it is determined that the detection targetinformation included in any of the pieces of automatic process settinginformation 20 has been detected (S23: Yes), the process moves to stepS24. On the other hand, when it is determined that none of the detectiontarget information included in the pieces of automatic process settinginformation 20 has been detected (S23: No), the automatic process ends.

<Step S24>

In step S24, the control portion 16 determines whether or not thedetection target information has been detected from only a part of thepages of the document 30. When it is determined that the detectiontarget information has been detected from only a part of the pages ofthe document 30 (S24: Yes), the process moves to step S26. On the otherhand, when it is determined that the detection target information hasbeen detected from all of the pages of the document 30 (S24: No), theprocess moves to step S28.

<Step S25>

In step S25, the control portion 16 displays a confirmation screen (notshown) on the operation/display portion 10 to ask a user which pageshould be processed. For example, when the detection target informationincluded in the automatic process setting information 20B shown in FIG.2 is detected only from a part of the pages of the document 30 (forexample, a first page of the document 30), the control portion 16displays the confirmation screen on the operation/display portion 10,including a message such as, “Detection target information correspondingto automatic process setting B has been detected from only a part ofpages of the document. Would you like to process only the part of pagesaccording to processing content corresponding to automatic processsetting B? Or, would you like to process all pages?”, and receives aselection operation from the user.

In step S26, the control portion 16 determines based on the selectionoperation whether or not all of the pages should be processed. When itis determined that all of the pages should be processed (S26: Yes), theprocess moves to step S28. On the other hand, when it is determined thatonly the part of pages should be processed (S26: No), the process movesto step S27.

<Step S27>

In step S27, the control portion 16 (process executing portion 163)processes part of the image data corresponding to the part of pages,according to preset processing content corresponding to the detectiontarget information detected from the part of pages. For example, in acase where the detection target information included in the automaticprocess setting information 20B shown in FIG. 2 is detected only from afirst page of the document 30, the control portion 16 transmits byemail, prints, and stores part of the image data corresponding to thefirst page. Then, the automatic process ends.

<Step S28>

In step S28, the control portion 16 (process executing portion 163)processes the image data corresponding to all of the pages, according topreset processing content corresponding to the detection targetinformation detected from the part of pages. For example, in a casewhere the detection target information included in the automatic processsetting information 20B shown in FIG. 2 is detected only from a firstpage of the document 30, the control portion 16 transmits by email,prints, and stores the image data corresponding to all of the pages.Then, the automatic process ends.

It is noted that while in the present embodiment, when the detectiontarget information is detected only from a part of pages of the document30, a user is asked to select which of only the part of pages or all ofthe pages should be processed, the present invention is not limited tothis. In another embodiment, for example, each piece of automaticprocess setting information 20 may be preset to specify whether only thepart of pages or all of the pages should be processed.

[Another Embodiment]

Next, with reference to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, a description is given of anexample of an operation of the control portion 16 (process executingportion 163), in a case where a plurality of pieces of automatic processsetting information 20C to 20E as shown in FIG. 6 are stored in thestorage portion 15, and a document 30 having a plurality of pages asshown in FIG. 7 is read by the image reading portion 12.

In FIG. 6, the automatic process setting information 20C includes acharacter string “pay statement” as the detection target information.The automatic process setting information 20D includes a characterstring “pay statement 2015” as the detection target information. Theautomatic process setting information 20E includes a character string“pay statement 2016” as the detection target information.

The document 30 shown in FIG. 7 includes 8 pages from a first page 30Ato an eighth page 30H.

The first page 30A includes the character string “pay statement 2014”.Accordingly, the detection processing portion 162 detects the characterstring “pay statement” that is the detection target informationcorresponding to the automatic process setting information 20C from thefirst page 30A.

The pages from the third page 30C to the fifth page 30E include thecharacter string “pay statement 2015”. Accordingly, the detectionprocessing portion 162 detects the character string “pay statement” thatis the detection target information corresponding to the automaticprocess setting information 20C, and the character string “pay statement2015” that is the detection target information corresponding to theautomatic process setting information 20D from the third page 30C to thefifth page 30E.

The seventh page 30G and the eighth page 30H include the characterstring “pay statement 2016”. Accordingly, the detection processingportion 162 detects the character string “pay statement” that is thedetection target information corresponding to the automatic processsetting information 20C, and the character string “pay statement 2016”that is the detection target information corresponding to the automaticprocess setting information 20E from the seventh page 30G and the eighthpage 30H.

In this case, the process executing portion 163 may generate groups ofpages including the detection target information, the groups beingindividually generated for each piece of automatic process settinginformation 20C to 20E, based on a detection result of the detectionprocessing portion 162 as described above. Then, for each group, theprocess executing portion 163 processes the image data corresponding tothe pages of the group, according to processing content included in theautomatic process setting information 20 corresponding to the group.

Specifically, based on the detection result of the detection processingportion 162, the process executing portion 163 generates a group(hereinafter referred to as a first group) of pages including thedetection target information (the character string “pay statement”)corresponding to the automatic process setting information 20C, a group(hereinafter referred to as a second group) of pages including thedetection target information (the character string “pay statement 2015”)corresponding to the automatic process setting information 20D, and agroup (hereinafter referred to as a third group) of pages including thedetection target information (the character string “pay statement 2016”)corresponding to the automatic process setting information 20E. Thefirst group is composed of six pages that are the first page 30A, thethird page 30C to the fifth page 30E, the seventh page 30G, and theeighth page 30H. The second group is composed of three pages that arethe third page 30C to the fifth page 30E. The third group is composed oftwo pages that are the seventh page 30G and the eighth page 30H.

The process executing portion 163 processes the image data correspondingto the six pages in the first group according to processing content(that is, process C) included in the automatic process settinginformation 20C. Furthermore, the process executing portion 163processes the image data corresponding to the three pages in the secondgroup according to processing content (that is, process D) included inthe automatic process setting information 20D. Furthermore, the processexecuting portion 163 processes the image data corresponding to the twopages in the third group according to processing content (that is,process E) included in the automatic process setting information 20E.

It is noted that the process C may be a monochrome printing process onboth sides in a “2 in 1” layout. The process D may be a storage processof storing the image data to a folder named “2015” in the storageportion 15. The process E may be a storage process of storing the imagedata to a folder named “2016” in the storage portion 15.

In addition, before processing the image data for the respective groups,the process executing portion 163 may display a list of pages includedin the groups on the operation/display portion 10, and confirm with auser whether or not the image data corresponding to the pages in thegroups may be processed according to the processing content. Forexample, the process executing portion 163 may display a confirmationscreen 40 as shown in FIG. 8 on the operation/display portion 10. Theconfirmation screen 40 includes tabs 41C to 41E. When the tab 41C isselected by the user, a list of the pages in the first group is shown.When the tab 41D is selected by the user, a list of the pages in thesecond group is shown. When the tab 41E is selected by the user, a listof the pages in the third group is shown. For example, when the tab 41Cis selected by the user, pages to be processed and the processingcontent are displayed, as shown in FIG. 8. Here, when the user selects abutton 42, the process executing portion 163 changes the pages to beprocessed to all pages for an automatic process setting C. In addition,when the user selects a button 43, the process executing portion 163starts a process relating to the automatic process setting C (that is,the process C). It is noted that when the user selects a button 44, theprocess executing portion 163 begins processes relating to all of theautomatic process setting C to E (that is, processes C to E). Inaddition, when the user selects a button 45, the process executingportion 163 ends the automatic process.

[Modified Example of Automatic Process Setting Information]

Next, with reference to FIG. 9, various modifications of the automaticprocess setting information 20 are described.

In a piece of automatic process setting information 20F shown in FIG. 9,the detection target information is “today's date”, and the processingcontent is “print”. The control portion 16 (detection processing portion162), for example, determines whether or not today's date (for example,a character string such as “February 12” or “2/12”) is included in thedocument 30, based on current data and time information acquired from anRTC (Real Time Clock, not shown) included in the image processing device1. When today's date is detected from the document 30, a print processis performed. It is noted that the detection target information is notlimited to the character string indicating “today's date”, and may be acharacter string indicating a date satisfying a specific condition, suchas “any date in the most recent week”.

In a piece of automatic process setting information 20G shown in FIG. 9,the detection target information is “name included in name list”, andthe processing content is “print for number of people”. The controlportion 16 (detection processing portion 162), for example, determineswhether or not a name included in a name list is included in thedocument 30, based on name list data (not shown) stored in the storageportion 15 or the like. When a name included in the name list isdetected from the document 30, a print process is performed as manytimes as the number of names detected from the document 30. For example,if names of 5 people included in the name list are detected, 5 copies ofthe image data of the document 30 are printed. In this way, processingcontent included in the automatic process setting information 20 may bea print process for printing as many copies of the image data as thenumber of character strings satisfying a specific condition (forexample, character strings indicating name included in a name list),detected by the detection processing portion 162.

In a piece of automatic process setting information 2011 shown in FIG.9, the detection target information is “name included in address book”,and the processing content is “transmit email”. The control portion 16(detection processing portion 162), for example, determines whether ornot a name included in an address book is included in the document 30,based on address book data (not shown) stored in the storage portion 15or the like. When a name included in the address book is detected fromthe document 30, email transmission is performed using an electronicmail address corresponding to the name included in the address book. Forexample, if names of 5 people included in the address book are detected,the image data of the document 30 is transmitted by email to the 5people using the electronic mail addresses of the 5 people.

It is noted that while in the present embodiment, a case is describedwhere the document 30 is read by the image reading portion 12, thepresent invention is not limited to this case, and the present inventionmay be applied to a case where the image data of the document 30 isacquired from the information processing device (host device) such as apersonal computer, via the communication interface 14.

1. An image processing device comprising: a storage portion configured to store one or more pieces of automatic process setting information including detection target information and processing content corresponding to the detection target information, the detection target information composed of a specific character string, a specific figure, or a specific combination thereof; an image data acquiring portion configured to acquire image data of a document; a detection processing portion configured to detect the detection target information from the document based on the image data; and a process executing portion configured to process the image data according to the processing content included in the automatic process setting information, when the detection target information included in the automatic process setting information is detected from the document by the detection processing portion.
 2. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the preset processing content includes processing content relating to at least one of a transmission process, a print process, and a storage process of the image data.
 3. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the image data acquiring portion acquires the image data from an image reading portion for reading an image of the document.
 4. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein when the detection target information is detected by the detection processing portion from a part of pages of the document having a plurality of pages, the process executing portion processes the image data corresponding to the part of pages, according to preset processing content corresponding to the detection target information.
 5. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein when the detection target information is detected by the detection processing portion from a part of pages of the document having a plurality of pages, the process executing portion processes the image data corresponding to all of the plurality of pages of the document, according to preset processing content corresponding to the detection target information.
 6. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the storage portion stores a plurality of pieces of automatic process setting information, and the process executing portion, based on a detection result of the detection processing portion, individually generates groups of pages including the detection target information for each of the plurality of pieces of the automatic process setting information, and for each of the groups, processes the image data corresponding to the pages in the groups according to the processing content included in the automatic process setting information corresponding to the groups.
 7. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the detection target information includes a character string indicating a date satisfying a specific condition.
 8. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the preset processing content includes a print process for printing a number of copies of the image data according to a number of character strings detected by the detection processing portion satisfying a specific condition.
 9. An image processing method in an image processing device including a storage portion for storing one or more pieces of automatic process setting information including detection target information and processing content corresponding to the detection target information composed of a specific character string, a specific figure, or a specific combination thereof, comprising: an image data acquiring step of acquiring image data of a document; a detection processing step of detecting the detection target information from the document based on the image data; and a process executing step of processing the image data according to the processing content included in the automatic process setting information, when the detection target information included in the automatic process setting information is detected from the document in the detection processing step. 